Street cred: Behind-the-scenes man has run Beale for 45 years
The shopkeepers that abandoned much of Beale Street in the ’50s and ‘60s left behind mountains of debris; Al James combed through that dustbin.
On May 21, 1979 — 45 years ago today — James walked on the street as a technician charged with cleaning up the mess. Today, James doesn’t own a penny’s worth of the trade on the street, but the merchants owe much of theirs to him.
